UN chief urges leaders to inject momentum at 2019 climate summit

(Eco Business, 5 Dec 2018) As the two-week 24th conference of the parties to the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) kicks off this week in Katowice, Poland, secretary general Antonio Guterres calls on over 150 world leaders for ways to step up climate action.

The UN secretary-general on Tuesday urged world leaders to use a climate change summit he will host in 2019 to explain how they plan to ratchet up their efforts to reverse worsening global warming that is leading to a “very dramatic situation”.

Antonio Guterres said the gathering at the United Nations in New York in September would be an “essential piece” in raising ambition to cut heat-trapping emissions, and helping countries cope better with wilder weather and rising seas.

The summit also will seek to raise more funding to ensure wealthy governments keep a 2020 promise to deliver $100 billion annually to help poor countries develop cleanly and adapt to a hotter planet, the UN chief added.

“We all know the massive scale of the climate challenge we face,” he told reporters at climate talks in Poland. “And we all know we are not on track.”

In 2020, countries are due to submit to the United Nations updated national climate action plans that are the lynchpin of the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015.